Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, [email protected]
ZIMBABWE Under-20 rugby head coach, Shaun De Souza said the squad will leave no stone unturned in preparing for next year’s Barthes Trophy.
The Junior Sables lost 13-28 to Kenya in this year’s final of the tournament in Harare but De Souza believes they learnt their lesson and are now aware of what needs to be done.
De Souza and his High-Performance Programme team have started preparing for next year’s tournament despite being in the off-season. The Junior Sables suffered a 17-76 loss to Zimbabwe A at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
De Souza said they will be scouting for talent around the country and polishing it to bolster the squad.
“I think losing the 2024 campaign has given us food for thought. We had put in the work but something went wrong. This time, we are leaving no stone unturned.
“The Grassroots to Greatness programme will make us dig deep and go to all the provinces looking for any gem to polish.
“We will get them into the programme and select the best possible squad,” said De Souza.
He was pleased that his team got to play against Zimbabwe A, which is preparing for the upcoming tours to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea.
“We had already launched our campaign with our off-season gym programme as part of our Grassroots to Greatness plan.
“We were fortunate to get an opportunity to play this game, it will give us a platform to get some game stats that we will put into the programme and use as a baseline,” he said. — @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter